As the Internet continues to evolve, the phrase “online community” has come to refer to a variety of different groups. In a broad sense, an online, or virtual, community refers to a group whose members are connected by means of one or more information technologies that operate over a communication network, whether the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, etc. Members of an online community are able to carry on some form of discourse over the network. Examples of online communities can include, but are not limited to, discussion forums, blogs, social networks, and the like.
From the description above, one can see that the phrase “online community” encompasses a wide variety of groups. One characteristic often shared among online communities is that the communities tend to be self-service in nature. Users typically learn of an online community and join that community independently of other users. The online communities themselves are created and maintained independently of one another. Often, online communities exercise little control over membership or other features of the communities.